Hands-On Learning At Engineering Camp In New Haven

NEW HAVEN - It might look like the teens at University of New Haven's engineering camp are playing with Legos and toy helicopters, but what they're doing isn't child's play.

For the past two weeks, 25 high school students from across Connecticut have been working in teams to build prototypes of helicopter wings, wind turbines and space vehicles. But the process isn't as easy as building a model Starship Enterprise.

Callia Ricozzi, 16, entering her senior year at the Sacred Heart Academy in Hamden, said the two week program has "been a little stressful because of the trial and error process. Everything has been breaking and we keep having to rebuild things."

Ricozzi has been working on the team challenged to build a model of a space exploration vehicle that can traverse all kinds of terrain. Using computer software, a 3D printer and a lot of experimentation and improvisation, her team successfully built a vehicle that was able to traverse rough rocky terrain, slippery sand and large speed bumps, as well as pick items up and drop them in a bucket. The process of building the device, as Ricozzi said, was challenging, but she said by splitting up duties her team was able to accomplish it through a lot of experimentation.

"What they're learning is to prototype something, see how it works and make it better. It gets them to understand things don't always work the first time. That's what real life engineering is all about," Carnasciali said.

The camp is run at the Kent School, Marymount College in New York, University of Detroit-Mercy and Georgia Tech in addition to UNH. This allows for students from across the country to communicate and learn from each other. Carnasciali, who teaches at UNH and got her Ph.D from Georgia Tech, said the participants are required to work with the teams from the other locations. They communicate on a daily basis about their designs and help each other formulate ideas, Carnasciali said.

This year, the second year UNH has hosted the camp, participants, who came from all over Connecticut, were challenged to design wind turbines, helicopter wings that worked better than those on toy helicopters and vehicles that could traverse rough surfaces. In the first week of the camp, the students were taught the basic engineering skills such as how to use engineering software, the 3D printers and how to design prototypes. Students also toured Sikorsky's facilities to see how helicopter wings are designed and produced.

Karen Grava, the Director of Media Relations for UNH, said giving students the opportunity to experience engineering in a hands-on environment is crucial to keeping them interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.

"All of us are concerned about training students in STEM," Grava said. "Engaging students with hands-on activities is a good way to keep them invested in the field. Especially since engineers now have to work across the board, we're teaching them the collaborative nature of the field. They really have to learn how to communicate. It teaches them to express their ideas in words."

Fifteen year old Marcus McCallum, a junior at the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, N,Y., said communicating with other teams at the different camps was a new challenge.

"We thought it wouldn't go so well, but it did. They actually ended up using some of our ideas," McCallum, who plans to pursue a college degree in engineering, he said.

Gary Yeung, a 17-year-old student who studies manufacturing at Wilcox Tech, in Meriden, said he came in with a little engineering experience, but that he learned a lot from the instruction of Carnasciali and the professors from Georgia Tech.

"It's been lots of fun and we've learned a lot of things about engineering. It's been hard, but very enjoyable," Yeung said. "The process is not so frustrating. It's tedious. But when it works you have that sense of pride."